Amazon and eero announced on February 11th, 2019, that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Amazon will acquire eero. eero’s home mesh WiFi systems set up in minutes and blanket every room of a customer’s home in high-performing, reliable WiFi.

Huawei and Nokia are named leaders of the IMS scorecard for the third time. The vendors rise above the rest due to financials and, specifically, Huawei’s customer perception scores and Nokia’s market share gains and percentage of network functions virtualization (NFV) sales.

The adoption of UCaaS continue to expand worldwide, but the market remains highly fragmented with a wide range of offerings from a variety of providers. The market is composed of pure-plays, network operators, cable MSOs, ISPs, system integrators, and traditional premises-based vendors. With a wide range of service offerings and capabilities, things can be confusing for businesses trying to find the right provider and service to fit their needs. Clients, please log in to view the full content.

That’s the key takeaway from Ribbon Perspectives 18’s Network Transformation panel held on June 5 in Los Angeles. With more than 600 attendees and loud L.A. style music blasting before, between, and after sessions, the event keeps growing. And of course, you don’t want to miss those perspectives. The panel had representatives from BT, Bell, and Verizon, all talking about their ongoing network transformation initiatives. All three are big on the role of software defined networks (SDN) as the key enabler of automation while preserving some of the legacy nodes that are fully depreciated and providing high reliability. Clients, please log in to view the full content.

Indonesia-based ride hailing company Go-Jek plans to launch its own online video subscription service, Go-Play. The video service will be available for daily, monthly and yearly subscriptions and the expected launch date is not disclosed yet.

IHS Markit has updated its Australian pay TV data in light of the latest guidance on the performance of market leader Foxtel provided by major shareholder News Corp Australia. Pay TV providers continue to show resilience but growth has plateaued, a sentiment echoed in the Q4 2017 filings by News Corp, which indicate a downward revision in its future outlook for the business. As such, IHS Markit has adjusted its forecasts on the Australian pay TV market accordingly, which now illustrate contrasting fortunes for the two main players – Foxtel’s subscriber base is going down, while Fetch TV’s is on the up.

Deutsche Telekom has announced a €1.9 billion deal ($2.3 billion) to acquire Austrian cable provider UPC from Liberty Global. Deutsche Telekom has the second largest mobile subscriber base in Austria, behind Telekom Austria, while UPC is second only to Telekom Austria in the market for fixed broadband services.

Spotify and Tencent have agreed a share swap and investment deal. The exact terms between the streaming music company and the Chinese internet giant have not been revealed but industry publications have reported that under the deal Spotify and Tencent Music Entertainment TME) will get 10% of each other’s businesses. TME, which is majority-owned by Tencent is the leading music streaming service in China powering offers from QQ Music, KuGou and Kuwo. In addition to the stock swap Tencent has acquired a stake in Spotify by purchasing shares from existing backers.

Spotify and Tencent have agreed a share swap and investment deal. The exact terms between the streaming music company and the Chinese internet giant have not been revealed but industry publications have reported that under the deal Spotify and Tencent Music Entertainment TME) will get 10% of each other’s businesses. TME, which is majority-owned by Tencent is the leading music streaming service in China powering offers from QQ Music, KuGou and Kuwo. In addition to the stock swap Tencent has acquired a stake in Spotify by purchasing shares from existing backers.

Australian commercial free-to-air TV broadcaster Seven Network will launch 7plus, its new over-the-top (OTT) digital video streaming service, in November 2017. 7plus will feature exclusive original commissions in addition to live and on demand content.

This morning, Cisco announced its intent to acquire BroadSoft for $55 per share cash for a total valuation of approximately $1.9B. It’s a poorly held secret that BroadSoft was looking for an acquirer, and last week it became clearer that Cisco was at the top of the list. BroadSoft will become part of Cisco’s UC business under GM Tom Puorro, under the Applications Group led by Rowan Trollope. The deal is expected to close in calendar Q1 2018. Clients, please log in to view the full content.

For the seventh year in a row, we are publishing our estimates on SIP trunking penetration in North America. This continues to be one of the most frequently requested metrics as we look to understand how quickly SIP adoption is happening and how much more upside opportunity is there to displace TDM. As SIP continues to progress, there is less of a need to understand when SIP trunking becomes mainstream but rather how quickly it fully displaces TDM. SIP trunking has become mainstream in North America, but that isn’t the case in most parts of the world. Clients, please log in to view the full content.

IHS Markit has updated its Chinese cable reporting methodology in light of on-the-ground research into the country’s naming convention for operators in each of China’s 23 provinces. The update to our Chinese cable data within our TV and Broadband Media Intelligence Services aligns our coverage of the Chinese TV market with the 70+ markets we cover.

Vodafone Cameroon was forced to shut down their service on 14 September 2017, following investigations into the company’s wireless broadband operation. Vodafone Cameroon - an Afrimax-Vodafone joint company began offering wireless broadband services in Cameroon in September 2016.
In November 2014, Afrimax, an African wireless broadband operator and telecoms management company, entered a strategic partnership agreement with Vodafone Group that allowed the two companies to enter new African telecommunications markets, launching mobile and wireless broadband services in Uganda, Zambia, Ghana and Cameroon.
Through the Partner Market Agreement, Vodafone was able to extend their global footprint whilst Afrimax gained continued access to a range of Vodafone products, networks, and services. In all four countries, services are offered under the Vodafone Country brand and the company entities are being referred to as part of Afrimax Group.

Malaysia’s direct-to-home (DTH) satellite pay TV monopoly is set to end. Ansa Broadcast plans to launch a new DTH pay TV service in Malaysia, ending a two decade monopoly held by Astro Malaysia Holdings (Astro).

Three of South Korea's leading broadcasters have launched Kocowa (Korean Content Wave), an online video streaming service, in the US. The service, launched on 24 July, is backed by Korean Content Platform (KCP), a US-based joint venture company between Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS). The service offers content from these broadcasters with English subtitles, with some shows airing six hours after broadcast in South Korea.

DIGI, one of the key players in the Hungarian pay TV and telecoms market, has reached an agreement to buy Invitel’s retail and small business customers for €140.7m. Invitel is the leading alternative telco in the market, offering pay TV, internet and fixed line telephony. The company is part of Invitel Group, which was sold to the CEE China fund by Magyar Telekom earlier this year.

Today Mitel announced its intent to acquire ShoreTel, which does not come as a big surprise. Over the past several years this combination has been rumored multiple times, and ShoreTel’s board has publicly been looking at strategic options for the company. The enterprise communications market is extremely tough with premises-based sales in decline and the majority of sales in the hands of only a few dominant vendors. Meanwhile businesses are shifting to cloud services, which is a very crowded market with a number of providers and no dominant company. Mitel and ShoreTel are among the few that have a position in the legacy PBX market while working on pivoting to cloud services. Clients, please log in to access the full content.